Freaky Deaky Festival Review

Come one, come all, to a music festival where your freakiest self is your best self; where bass and deep house collide, and where the young meets old. You have now stepped into the magical 3-day carnival-style festival, Freaky Deaky.

Fire dancers, carnival rides, carnival games and attractive stage setups made you feel like you were in a different world for the weekend. Costumes and facepaint added to the scenery as goblins, witches and zombies ran from stage to stage to get their groove on.

Thrown by Midwest production company, React Presents, Freaky Deaky debuted its first ever 3 day festival at Toyota Park (just outside of Chicago) over Halloween weekend. The lineup was stacked, bringing a nice mix of electronic music for festival goers of all types.

How to Get There/Where to Stay

Freaky Deaky made getting to and from the festival incredibly easy, no matter if you came from Chicago or across the country.

Toyota Park is located about 35 minutes outside of downtown Chicago. In order to accommodate festival-goers from across the country and city, Freaky Deaky arranged several options.

Buses: Partnering with company Fest Drive, shuttles were available from two locations within the city. The cost for the shuttle was $25 for each day roundtrip, or $60 for the weekend. Shuttles left every half hour starting in the afternoon and the final shuttle left the festival at 11:30pm, 30 minutes after the music stopped.

Hotels: For those coming in from out of town, the festival organized discounted rates with hotels both in the city (shuttle pickup locations), as well as with hotels that were next to Midway airport, just a couple of miles from the festival grounds. The hotels nearest to the venue provided free shuttles.

Parking: Parking was available for $15 for a day, or $30 for the weekend.

Capacity

Offering 3 stages of music, the capacity for the festival was around 60,000 although the show did not sell out . The amount of space at the festival felt very comfortable and although the stages were all close together, the sound was kept in each tent well. The bathroom layouts were well organized as there were three separate areas which went nicely with each stage in general admission. The festival was also well lit throughout the grounds, never making people traffic an issue no matter where you went.

What VIP looks like

VIP for this festival meant great viewing areas at both of the main stages with access to private (trailer style) bathrooms. Separate bars were available for VIP guests as well in each private viewing area. In addition, a speedy entry was included by having a separate security and entrance, allowing VIP patrons to get into the festival in under 2 minutes.

Crowd

The crowd for this Halloween infused festival was fun, lively, and ready to party. The ages ranged from 18 all the way up to music fans in their 40s. The crowd rocked three days of face paint and full blown costumes. Additionally, the festival hired fire dancers and performers on stilts to interact with the attendees.

Food

Similar to a carnival or circus, the festival had vendors with the same theme in mind. Corn dogs and funnel cakes were just some of the food available for attendees.

Things To Do

Freaky Deaky was true to its carnivalesque theme in all regards, and was sure to provide plenty of fun carnival-style activities as well.

The festival offered:

Carnival style games (complete with prizes)

Several carnival style rides

Shopping with several different vendors (clothing, lights, etc.)

Performances by fire dancers

Specific Freaky Deaky afterparties at nightclubs throughout Chicago featuring some of the best music acts at the show

What Makes the Festival Different

Not only was the organization of Freaky Deaky absolutely outstanding, but the festival made sure that every aspect of it lived up to its carnival theme. The entrance gate, the art installations, the stages, the performers, the food vendors and even the activities all related straight back to its “Freak Show” theme. With it being in its first year, the festival could not have been more impressive and Festival Squad looks forward to the next years to come.

Overall Rating: 10/10

This festival was fun, interactive, well organized, had an amazing lineup and a great crowd. With it being in its first year, there is not much that could have been improved. Everything at the festival from start to finish was a great time and the festival even had afterparties available as well. Festival Squad highly recommends this festival to anyone looking to have an amazing weekend over Halloween.

Other notes: The festival did an amazing job keeping its attendees safe. Water was being handed out in the crowds and to everyone standing at the front gate in each stage. Additionally, empty water bottles were allowed in and there were free refill stations available as well.

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